Camden

Camden is a city in New Jersey and the seat of Camden County. In 1626, the Dutch West India Company built Fort Nassau on the site of the modern city, and the land was sold off to a group of Quakers in 1673. The town grew due to its proximity and ferry connections to Philadelphia across the Delaware River, and, in 1773, Jacob Cooper named the town after Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. The city was incorporated on 13 February 1828, and it became the seat of the new Camden County on 13 March 1844. Camden became a consistently prosperous industrial city, and it remained so through the Great Depression and World War II. During the 1950s, the manufacturers began closing their factories or moving out of the city, and suburbanization affected the loss of population. Civil unrest and crime became common in Camden, including 1971 race riots following the police killing of a Puerto Rican motorist. In 2012, Camden had the highest crime rate in the United States, with 2,566 violent crimes for every 100,000 people (a 2.7% chance of being a crime victim). However, since then, there has been a sharp drop in violent crime. In 2016, Camden had a population of 74,420 people.